Alex V - A personal obituary
Posted: 08 Jan 2026, 15:48
This is such a bizarre post that only the 21st Century could throw it up.
Today, I learned the devastatingly sad news about someone I never met, but someone who changed my life significantly. Not a pop star or an actor whom I admired or remembered from years ago, but a normal soul who affected me in a very profound way by giving me an opportunity I might never have otherwise had.
I discovered today that Alex Van der Weyer had passed away suddenly last month. He was only 52, and I'd 'known' him since 1998, yet we never met. It could be easily argued that I never really knew him at all. Yet to me, he was a friend and colleague, a confidante and someone I 'spoke' to regularly - at one stage at least daily - via email for a good many years. Although I never met AlexV, however, he touched my life and, by definition, my family in so many ways.
As you'll know, Alex was the founder and Editor of this website initially called 'Bashing the Bishop', later called the 'Ironworks', the latter gave me my first break on the internet. The Ironworks was later renamed WestHamOnline, of course.
I discovered the Ironworks, as, being in IT (I worked on Prestel, the forerunner of the WWW), I was on the web within months of it taking off. I saw the early growth of the new websites, discovered the rise of the internet-based football fan areas and found that Alex was looking for people who could write about West Ham. As a WHU fanatic and a frustrated writer who'd had a few things published, I hoped I might find a voice on this new medium.
Alex gave me that opportunity, and I wrote my first-ever column as Billy Blagg. I found it hard to write as 'me' for some reason, and it was my wife who came up with the name change. Once she'd suggested I try writing as Billy, everything fell into place, and it changed my life completely. My first BB column slagged off Pini Zahavi over Rio Ferdinand's new contract. That's one for the teenagers.
Within five years, the column had taken off. I had written a book - Alex provided the foreword (which oddly I re-read just before Christmas) - and was writing for Soccernet (later ESPN, which actually paid me, giving me a second career) and the local Guardian newspaper. I never gave up on WHO, though; it was my home, and I contributed a column whenever I could, right up until 2018 when I lost my wife. Despite this, WHO is still the only place I visit.
Bizarrely, as is the way of things on the Internet, although Alex gave me an opportunity and another career (his wife drew some early Blagg representations too), we could have passed in the street, and I'd not have known it. Nonetheless, this has hit me really hard.
These internet friend obituaries are a difficult thing to do. You can't take a 'sorry for your loss' as I've not lost anyone I really knew, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank AlexV for the platform and second career he gave me.
My thoughts are with Alex's family, particularly Jo and his daughter
RIP Alex, mate. I won't forget you.
Today, I learned the devastatingly sad news about someone I never met, but someone who changed my life significantly. Not a pop star or an actor whom I admired or remembered from years ago, but a normal soul who affected me in a very profound way by giving me an opportunity I might never have otherwise had.
I discovered today that Alex Van der Weyer had passed away suddenly last month. He was only 52, and I'd 'known' him since 1998, yet we never met. It could be easily argued that I never really knew him at all. Yet to me, he was a friend and colleague, a confidante and someone I 'spoke' to regularly - at one stage at least daily - via email for a good many years. Although I never met AlexV, however, he touched my life and, by definition, my family in so many ways.
As you'll know, Alex was the founder and Editor of this website initially called 'Bashing the Bishop', later called the 'Ironworks', the latter gave me my first break on the internet. The Ironworks was later renamed WestHamOnline, of course.
I discovered the Ironworks, as, being in IT (I worked on Prestel, the forerunner of the WWW), I was on the web within months of it taking off. I saw the early growth of the new websites, discovered the rise of the internet-based football fan areas and found that Alex was looking for people who could write about West Ham. As a WHU fanatic and a frustrated writer who'd had a few things published, I hoped I might find a voice on this new medium.
Alex gave me that opportunity, and I wrote my first-ever column as Billy Blagg. I found it hard to write as 'me' for some reason, and it was my wife who came up with the name change. Once she'd suggested I try writing as Billy, everything fell into place, and it changed my life completely. My first BB column slagged off Pini Zahavi over Rio Ferdinand's new contract. That's one for the teenagers.
Within five years, the column had taken off. I had written a book - Alex provided the foreword (which oddly I re-read just before Christmas) - and was writing for Soccernet (later ESPN, which actually paid me, giving me a second career) and the local Guardian newspaper. I never gave up on WHO, though; it was my home, and I contributed a column whenever I could, right up until 2018 when I lost my wife. Despite this, WHO is still the only place I visit.
Bizarrely, as is the way of things on the Internet, although Alex gave me an opportunity and another career (his wife drew some early Blagg representations too), we could have passed in the street, and I'd not have known it. Nonetheless, this has hit me really hard.
These internet friend obituaries are a difficult thing to do. You can't take a 'sorry for your loss' as I've not lost anyone I really knew, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank AlexV for the platform and second career he gave me.
My thoughts are with Alex's family, particularly Jo and his daughter
RIP Alex, mate. I won't forget you.
